


Love and Other Forms of Madness

by bladespark



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Genre: Love, M/M, Master/Slave, Redemption, Romance, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 16:11:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18034880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bladespark/pseuds/bladespark
Summary: Can a shadow and a slave ever truly have the love of  his master?  In a world of repeating destiny and branching timelines, perhaps he can...





	Love and Other Forms of Madness

In the land of Hyrule, destiny is an ever-repeating spiral, history moving forward, yet always coming back to the same conflict, the same battle of Courage against Power, as the legendary hero Link faces the ever-returning evil of Ganon. This turning, though, is different from some, for it is the dark mage Vaati that Link fights, and Link wields the Four Sword, enabling him to become four different versions of himself.

Yet there are, in fact, _five_ versions of Link out and about in the world in this moment. Four of them seek the dark mage Vaati's destruction. The fifth is even now in Vaati's deepest and most secret stronghold, and he is not there to conquer. Quite the opposite, in fact.

At the heart of Vaati's hidden fortress there is a bedchamber, furnished in sybaritic luxury with every possible comfort. The bed, with its feather mattress and silken hangings, is more than big enough for the two who are entwined there. They are joined intimately in body, but their hearts and minds are held far apart.

Lying on the bed is Shadow Link, a magic-and-mirror-born dark copy of the legendary hero; Vaati's creation, servant, and slave. He is a short, leanly muscular young man, with jet black hair and deep ruby eyes. His face is currently twisted with passion, his hands gripping the silken sheets beneath him as he moans with pleasure. Yet though he is to all appearances lost in bliss, there is some deep part of him that holds back, always. For though he is filled with pleasure, he is also filled with fear, that his master sees him only as a toy, a thing to use and discard, and doesn't care for him.

Above him is Vaati, tall, slender, and pale-skinned, with eyes the same bright ruby as his slave's, but with hair that is a long, silvery purple, falling in a curtain all around him as he takes his pleasure. His eyes are closed, his expression intent. He is pursing his passion with single-minded energy, as he pursues all things he desires. Yet he too harbors a deep, secret fear. He is certain that Shadow only lies with him because he feels he must, that he does it because he is a slave, and not because he cares for Vaati.

Thus when the moment is over and they lie together, heated blood cooling, rapid breath slowing, they hold each other gingerly, neither willing to be too close, too familiar, lest imagined rejection finally become reality.

A sound suddenly intrudes on the moment, a soft, high chiming, and Vaati sits bolt upright. "The door wards? Now?" He scrambles out of bed and throws his robes on. Shadow, heart suddenly pounding, climbs out more slowly, and dons his black tunic.

Meanwhile Vaati has gone to a mirror that stands at one side of the room. It is not the powerful Dark Mirror, from which Shadow was created, but a lesser glass, which Vaati uses to view the hidden entrance to his fortress. The door stands exposed and open, and four figures are moving together down the hallway inside.

"Link," Vaati hisses. "But how? There's no way they could know about this place. No one knows about this place except..." His eyes flick to Shadow. "You. What really happened last time you fought them? You said you got Vio alone but failed to slay him before the others returned. What did you do?"

"I..." Shadow trembles. He considers a lie, but Vaati's magic seizes him, the mage's third eye, as red as the other two, opening to capture his gaze.

"Tell me what you did."

Shadow cannot resist the compulsion in that unearthly stare. "I told Vio how to get in. I'm so sorry, Master."

Vaati's face twists, strong emotions racing over it. For a moment Shadow sees something that might be pain, and wonders at it. Anger he expected, but could Vaati truly be hurt by his betrayal? "How could you do such a thing? How could you dare?" The anger is there now, but there is something else beneath it.

Answering the anger, Shadow finds a little of his own. "I'm Link too! Vio said that to me. I have a destiny, just like they do. You should have made me from somebody else, if you wanted a perfect slave, because I need to follow my destiny, even if it tears my heart into pieces!" Somehow, in the midst of his outburst, Shadow's anger has transmuted to tears, that stand in his eyes, blurring his vision.

For a moment Vaati looks stricken, his anger softening. Then he gathers it again, and more. "Your heart?" His voice is sneering. "What does that have to do with any of this?"

"Everything!" The tears begin to run down Shadow's face. "I love you! I've never been able to do anything but love you! But I know you're evil. You can't be allowed to win. You have to fall, good has to prevail." Tears stream from his eyes, and he goes to his knees, overcome with emotion.

Vaati stares at him, stunned. His eyes are wide, his breath suddenly coming fast. "You... You love me?"

Shadow looks away from him, still weeping. "Yes. It's madness, but I can't help it. You are my world, my everything. I know I'm nothing to you. Just a tool, just a slave. I have to be more than that. I have to be who I truly am, I have to be Link... But even then I can't keep from loving you."

"I..." Vaati shakes his head, baffled. Another chime sounds, and he glances at the mirror, where Link four-fold is descending a long spiral staircase. He mutters a curse, then turns back to Shadow. "Would that I had known that days, even mere hours ago. My Shadow... There is no time now. The heroes will be here in minutes, and I must go and face them. I suppose I have a destiny too."

He bends, then, and kisses Shadow, deep and hard. "If I lose, and die, my magic dies with me, and so do you," he says a little breathlessly when the kiss is done.

"I know," says Shadow, sadly.

"If I win..." Vaati grins suddenly. "Am I evil, my Shadow? Perhaps I am. Yet I love you too. If I win, maybe we can find a way for a shadow with the soul of a hero and a villain to still love each other."

Then he is gone in a whirl of robes, out the door, to do battle, leaving Shadow, utterly stunned, behind him.

****

It is said that time branches constantly, that each choice, each action with multiple possible outcomes creates multiple new realities where these outcomes play out.

So while it is very certain that the four heroes defeated the evil Vaati, and Shadow perished without ever having had a chance to know his Master's love, there is also a branch of possibility where Vaati now stumbles back into his room, exhausted and bleeding, but triumphant.

"I won, my Shadow, my pet, my wonderful love." He is giddy with it, laughing, in a kind of mania. "And I won because of you. You will be glad indeed when you learn how it went."

"Master?" Shadow looks up from where he yet kneels on the floor, confused and baffled.

"I saw your face. Your face four times over, and I couldn't bring myself to kill them. I tried half-heartedly, though I know they thought it quite the battle. I had nearly resigned myself to dying because of the foolishness in my own heart. But then I realized, then I knew! All their power, all their charms and wards and wits were guarding against death. Not a one of them had a way to prevent my simply sending them elsewhere. So I did! And I sent Zelda in her crystal with them." He laughs again, madly. "She can no longer claim her throne, so it is mine! Some other world, some other version of Hryle now has double the princesses, and five times the heroes, but they are gone forever from this one." His eyes fix on Shadow then, and his smile gentles, his mania calming. "I won, I live, and so do they, my Shadow. Yet they are _gone_ , and here, in this world, there is only you to be the hero. Will you stop me claiming what is mine?"

"I... I don't know. Maybe I should."

"Shadow... Do you truly think me evil?" Vaati's expression is open, vulnerable, as he asks.

"Yes! You've done everything and anything, with no care for anyone else, to get power." There are tears again in his eyes as he says it, but he cannot deny it.

Vaati looks down at him, and he sighs softly. "Then why love me? If you truly have a hero's soul, how could you come to love someone evil?"

"I..." Shadow chokes, a shudder going through him. "You're not all evil. There have been times..."

Vaati kneels, cups Shadow's cheek. "I want what I want, my Shadow. I do not _want_ to harm others."

"But you will if it gets you what you want."

"Yes."

Shadow looks away. "Then I have to try and stop you."

"I see." Vaati looks at him for a long moment, then looks away, and Shadow feels his stomach churning with terrible tension. He loves Vaati so much, he doesn't want to have to fight him. He also knows that fighting him alone is almost certain death. But he has sworn to Vio that he will be a hero, and that swearing resonated to his very bones. He knows he has to do it. If Vaati pushes him, he'll have no choice, just as he'd had no choice but to betray Vaati in the first place.

Vaati looks back, and suddenly a smile blossoms across his face. He laughs again. "Very well, then. So be it! You will stop me. And to do that, you will come with me. Every time I lift my hand to do harm, you must tell me, and I will refrain."

"Master?" Shadow blinks at him, incredulous.

Vaati grins. "I love you, my Shadow. Did I mention that? I love you so much I couldn't kill those damnable heroes, even after all the trouble they've caused me, solely because they have your face. I want you with me. If it comes at some cost, then so be it. But what better way for you to be true to your nature, and still be by my side than to be my conscience? I will take the throne, as I always dreamed, and you will see to it that I rule kindly. Vaati the Kind. Perhaps I'd rather have that as my legacy than Vaati the Tyrant in any case. I want power, my Shadow, my love. As I said, though, I do not _want_ to do harm. So come, be the hero, see that all ends well for Hyrule."

"But..."

"But? Do you not want to be with me?"

"Of course I do! But you're not supposed to be the king!"

"No? Who is, then? Zelda is rather indisposed just now, after all." Vaati grins, almost cheerfully.

"I... Uh..." Shadow flounders. When Vio had told him what he needed to do it had been so simple. It hadn't been easy, but it had been simple. This is much more complicated. Him, as Vaati's conscience? It seems absurd.

Then Vaati is bending further, and his lips are on Shadow's, pressing tightly in a kiss that swiftly grows passionate. With a soft moan of surrender, Shadow kisses him back, closing his eyes, letting Vaati's arms embrace him. He wants this, needs this even, and his resistance crumbles as passion washes through him.

It is not only physical desire, though. It is so much more. It is the memory of every small moment he has spent with Vaati, the times in between the plans for conquest, the moments after lovemaking when he's seemed something like tender, the little hints of hoped-for sweetness, and the knowledge, now, that Vaati does love him. It is the image of a possible future where Vaati becomes all that remembered good, and not the evil he has also been, blossoming in Shadow's mind as the kiss goes on for a wonderful eternity.

Thus, when the kiss is finally done, Shadow says, with sudden, daring firmness, "Yes."

"Yes?" says Vaati, his eyebrows lifting.

"I'll be your conscience, master. I'll make sure you don't do anything evil. I'll try and be the hero, and also still be your servant." Shadow smiles at Vaati. "It's some kind of madness, I'm sure, to try such a thing. But what else can I do?"

"It's a madness I share," said Vaati gently, his fingers caressing Shadow's cheek. "I should dissolve you back into the mirror, or send you after the other heroes, or bind you to complete servitude, and instead I bind myself to you. But the idea isn't frightening, my Shadow. I think of a future with you and I together, and it makes me happier than anything other than power and conquest ever has."

Then he kisses Shadow again, sweetly, deeply, and Shadow kisses back, warmly, willingly.

In the land of Hyrule destiny is everything, but sometimes fate may play out in strange ways, and now, in the bedchamber deep within Vaati's no-longer-so-secret fortress, hero and villain come together in a passionate affirmation of love, to forge a new path of destiny together.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a pretty silly little thing. I may eventually do a longer treatment of this, because I *really* love the Shadow Link/Vaati pairing. I like Link/Vaati in general, it's my crackship. For now, though, I think it works well enough as is.
> 
> Written for the Lands of Magic "madness" themed challenge.
> 
> P.S. If you'd like to see me talk about writing, my works in progress, other creative endeavors, and my life in general, check out [my Dreamwidth blog](https://bladespark.dreamwidth.org/).)


End file.
